The foundation was established on the private initiative of the two people who gave it its name, Hildegard Doerenkamp († 2011) and Prof. Gerhard Zbinden († 1993), then head of the Institute of Toxicology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the University of Zurich in Schwerzenbach/Zurich.

H. Doerenkamp had been looking for a starting point that would enable her to become actively involved in animal protection and science for quite some time. In 1982 she happened to see an interview on television with G. Zbinden, one of the great toxicologists and co-founder of the field.

In this lecture, Gerhard ZbindenZbinden criticised the legal requirements to determine the so-called lethal dose (LD 50) for each new drug substance. As a toxicologist, he rejected the torturous killing of hundreds of mice and rats to test the safety of new drugs, but also of some chemicals. He attributed only little importance to this procedure for the assessment of the danger of active substances and chemicals.

Touched by this interview, H. Doerenkamp contacted G. Zbinden and expressed her wish to make part of her fortune available for improving the lot of laboratory animals. As she had always been in close contact with animals during her long life, it was her wish to give back her positive experiences with animals as temporary companions through their targeted protection in research as a way of thanking them.

G. Zbinden considered the elimination of all animal experiments to be politically unenforceable and scientifically unjustified. Instead, he sought support and help to prevent nonsensical, superfluous or foreseeably unproductive animal experiments and to reduce the suffering of animals in necessary experiments.

As a result, H. Doerenkamp began to financially support toxicological research in Zurich at Prof. Zbinden's institute, to inspect the experiments and to discuss the meaning and purpose of their work with the researchers, especially G. Zbinden. These intensive discussions between the two founders of the foundation, a layman and a researcher, also resulted in new insights for the researcher, e.g. that animals show different performance and behaviour patterns under pain and stress than in a state of a stable, calm and safe environment.

After a few years, the understanding on both sides had grown so much that H. Doerenkamp and G. Zbinden agreed to contribute their individual "assets" to a first joint foundation: H. Doerenkamp her emotional will and intuitive problem awareness, but also her capital, G. Zbinden his great scientific and experimental experience and his organisational talent.

The first period of the D.Z. Foundation - The first foundations (1985-1993)

In 1985, H. Doerenkamp and G. Zbinden established the first foundation in the canton of Graubünden in Chur. It had the task of honouring outstanding achievements for animal welfare in the field of biomedical research by means of prizes.

In the following year, a second foundation was established through another donation, the proceeds of which were used to support research to reduce the suffering of laboratory animals. The income from this foundation was used to finance the salaries of scientific and technical staff, as well as equipment, consumables and teaching materials.

Both foundations were managed scientifically by G. Zbinden and financially by H. Doerenkamp. The foundations fulfilled their purpose until 1993.

During this time, important projects were initiated: various positions for scientific training (e.g. Dr. Peter Kistler) as well as technical staff (e.g. Dr. Michael Müller and Pia Reiser) were financed at the Institute of Toxicology in Schwerzenbach. Equipment, e.g. a patch clamp stand for brain stroke research (apoplexy) by Prof. Dr. Gähwiler, was purchased, equipment of a smaller scale was procured and various studies on the use of experimental animals were carried out:

For example, G. Zbinden and Prof. D. Neubert analysed the use of beagle dogs in breast cancer research and achieved the elimination of these experiments. On the advice of G. Zbinden, smaller research grants of CHF 30 000 to 60 000, for a maximum of two years, were awarded towards the end of this first Foundation period, on application and after evaluation by the Foundation Board.

Kay Brune

In 1993, G. Zbinden passed away and a reorganisation of the foundations became necessary and was achieved through the merger of the two primary foundations. His long-time confidant, Beat Gähwiler, took over the chairmanship of the Foundation Council and continued to lead the renewed Foundation in the spirit of Gerhard Zbinden in the years to come.        

In the meantime, the Foundation's capital had grown to such an extent that up to 12 research projects could be supported per year. The selection was made on the basis of the submitted documents in an intensive discussion between the scientists and the lay members of the Foundation Council. In addition to these activities, doctoral and training scholarships continued to be awarded at the Institute in Schwerzenbach/Zurich co-founded by Gerhard Zbinden. Numerous publications from this period owe their support to the Foundation.

New focal points arose from B. Gähwiler's interest in the field of neurobiology. A CD-Rom from this period, created by B. Gähwiler, documents the efforts to develop alternative methods in this field.

Kay Brune

In 1995, the leadership of the Foundation Council passed to Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Kay Brune. A newly formulated Foundation Charter was accepted by the Foundation Supervisory Authority, which was still based in Chur at the time. In it, the composition of the Foundation Council as well as the Foundation's goals and the permissible procedures for achieving this goal were laid down. For example, the application for financial support for members of the Foundation Board and their employees was excluded.

At the centre of the Foundation's 10-year activity under the leadership of K. Brune was the effort to communicate the special nature of the Foundation to the public: The goal of the founders was, after all, to reduce the suffering of animals wherever possible, as long as animal experiments are necessary for the protection of humans. This goal was approached on 3 different levels:

On the one hand, research support continued to be granted (through calls for tenders); this also included procedures for better pain relief in laboratory animals, the establishment of organ cultures and the development of novel cell culture techniques if they appeared suitable as replacement methods. In order to give sustainability to these efforts, it was decided in 2001 to establish an "endowed professorship for in vitro methods to replace animal experiments" in Constance. The state of Baden-Württemberg agreed to take over the professorship in the state budget after 10 years.

The Foundation provided substantial support for the dissemination of teaching and training material through CDs, video programmes, support for books describing techniques of optimal animal handling in experiments, best possible anaesthesia methods and other experimental techniques.

Finally, the Foundation aimed to raise awareness of animal welfare issues among students and scientists. Symposia with resulting publications and artworks (e.g. in Erlangen) were intended to raise awareness among students and researchers of possible animal suffering, to stimulate them to use gentle measures and to improve the possibility of communication between researchers and lay people.

Many of these goals were achieved with the help of the available foundation funds.

With the funding of an endowed chair at the University of Erlangen by H. Doerenkamp (Doerenkamp Chair for Innovations in Animal and Consumer Protection), which for five years dealt primarily with imaging techniques in biomedical research, a major contribution was made to refinement in animal experimentation, especially in pain research.

At the end of 2004, H. Doerenkamp commissioned the scientific director of the Zurich foundation "Fonds für versuchstierfreie Forschung, FFVFF" and editor of the journal ALTEX (Alternatives to Animal Experiments), Privatdozent Dr. med. vet. Dr. habil. Franz P. Gruber, to reorganise the DZ Foundation and focus it exclusively on the replacement and reduction of animal experiments. In the future, the foundation will only devote itself to the other two "Rs", since in the opinion of the founder, enough has been done so far, especially with the Erlangen chair, for the refinement.

Together with H. Doerenkamp and the Zurich lawyer Dr. iur. Peter Krepper, Franz P. Gruber formulated a new Foundation Charter and, for the first time, regulations on research funding, investment strategy and internal dealings between the Foundation's bodies. The Foundation's registered office was moved from Chur to Zurich and entered in the Commercial Register there. An important change in the Foundation's deed is the provision that for the first time the Foundation's capital may also be drawn upon to meet contractual obligations (Chair of Constance). All amendments were approved by the Swiss Foundation Supervisory Authority in Bern.

Constance lawyer and certified accountant Norbert Linke was brought onto the Foundation Board to advise on financial matters.

At the Foundation Board meeting in August 2005, on the occasion of the 5th World Congress on Alternative Methods in Berlin, Prof. Dr. Dr. Thomas Hartung (Head of ECVAM) was also elected to the Foundation Board.

At the meeting of the Foundation Board on 29 April 2006, a further member competent in financial matters was elected, authorised signatory Eduard Wolf.

Since then, all applications to the Foundation have been handled consistently according to the new funding regulations.

In 2006, a "Foundation Professorship for In Vitro Methods to Replace Animal Experiments" was established at the University of Constance. The contract with the Thurgau Foundation for Science and Research was already concluded in July 2003. However, the appointment negotiations dragged on until March 2006 (see News).

Marcel Leist, the "Doerenkamp-Zbinden Professor" at the University of Konstanz, gave his inaugural lecture on 25 October 2007. He was also elected Chairman of the Foundation's Scientific Advisory Board.

Due to the extraordinarily good start of the Constance Chair, it was decided at the suggestion of the founder to focus the Foundation's work on establishing further chairs.

Since then, new chairs have been established:

Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
"Doerenkamp-Zbinden (full-)Professorship for Alternative Methods in Toxicology.
Prof. Dr. Bas Blaauboer
Inauguration: 6 November 2008.
Term 2008 to 2014.

Université de Geneve, Faculté de Médecine, Switzerland
Together with the Egon-Naef Foundation
"Doerenkamp-Naef-Zbinden (full-)Professorship on Alternative Methods to Animal Experimentation".
Prof. Dr. Pierre Cosson
Inauguration: 5 March 2009.
Duration: 2009 to 2014.

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA
"Doerenkamp-Zbinden Endowed Chair for Evidence-based Toxicology".
Prof. Dr. Dr. Thomas Hartung
Inauguration: 12 May 2009.
Duration: Permanent, as long as Johns Hopkins University exists.

Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India
Gandhi-Gruber-Doerenkamp Chair
New construction of the institute building with the support of the DZS
Prof. Dr. Mohammad A. Akbarsh
Inauguration 2 October 2009
Duration: 5 years